The Freedom From Religion Foundation is again taking its national billboard campaign to keep state and church separate to Colorado.
This time, FFRF’s billboards (two in Denver and one in Colorado Springs) will alert passersby to the folly of theocracy with the message, “God Fixation Won’t Fix This Nation.” The billboard idea and design stem from the fertile mind of illustrator Steve Benson, the atheist grandson of Ezra Taft Benson, a former Mormon Church president.
“This is the launch of our election-year caveat,” says FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor, who adds that the billboards are also meant to counter the May 3 National Day of Prayer and its Task Force, which is based in Colorado Springs.
“God fixation is what is wrong with our nation, and we need to place our best energies, time and money in improving this world, and not worrying about an unknowable, unprovable afterlife, or expecting an imaginary god to swoop down to fix our very real problems,” Gaylor says.
It’s the 61st annual National Day of Prayer, which requires the U.S. president to issue a proclamation declaring it that. This year’s theme, “One Nation Under God,” is based on Psalm 33:12, which says “blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord.” Task Force Chairman Shirley Dobson, wife of Focus on the Family evangelical founder Dr. James Dobson, works out of Colorado Springs.
As a nonprofit 501(c)(3), FFRF steers clear of partisan politics but works to keep religion out of government. Based in Madison, Wis., with more than 18,000 members, it placed its first billboard in Madison in 2007. Since then, it’s placed about 700 billboards in more than 60 cities.
The Colorado Springs billboard will be up through the first week of May and is located off U.S. Highway 24 east of Academy Boulevard.
The Denver billboards, also up through the first week of May, are at West Colfax Avenue half a mile east of Sheridan and off Interstate 70 a mile east of Colorado 470.
Note: The billboard locations are marked in blue.
